Gun violence more likely in Richmond County than in Georgia, US

US, state rates topped

It’s three times more likely that a gun will be involved in an aggravated assault in Rich­mond County than the nation as a whole, according to the latest crime data from the FBI.

The FBI’s 2010 Uniform Crime Report showed that 56 percent of aggravated assaults in Richmond County ended in someone being shot. The national average is 18 percent; in Georgia, 25 percent.

The Richmond County percentage is actually down from previous years. In 2007 and 2008, more than 70 percent of aggravated assaults were shootings – four times the U.S. rate and nearly three times Georgia’s rate. Data for 2009 were not available.

Lt. Calvin Chew oversaw the Richmond County Sher­iff’s Office’s violent crimes division until January, when he became the administrative lieutenant over criminal investigations. He attributed the county’s high numbers to the wide availability of guns, legal or otherwise.

“It’s not a hard thing to do to get your hands on a gun,” Chew said. “Guns are just more available in the South and the criminal element is well-armed.”

William Reese, a professor of criminal justice and sociology at Augusta State Univer­sity, said the area’s high rate of gun violence could be attributed to two major factors: Augusta’s location and the culture of the South in general.

“Here in the South, there’s a tendency to settle interpersonal disputes with violence instead of discussion or calling the police to intervene,” he said. “Firearms also carry prestige around here. It’s a symbol of status and kids want that reputation, that mark of manhood.”

Reese also said Augusta is part of a long corridor of illegal guns regularly moving up the East Coast. Weapons come to the South on boats and planes and make their way up the coast, especially to New York, he said.

Reese said the corridor was becoming more evident on the federal level. He thinks many illegal weapons finish their journey north early when they find their way into the hands of area criminals.

“The availability of the guns is really all you need to know,” Reese said. “When the culture dictates that you solve those things with violence, shootings become statistically predictable.”

Chew said the tide has turned in the battle to get guns off the street and that the situation is improving.

“This became our main concern – to make the public safe,” he said. “Getting illegal guns off the street is a great way to do so, and we’re not going to stop until there are no illegal guns out there beingused during violent crimes.

“We’ve seen violent crimes and assaults committed with guns decrease every year since 2008. The progress from year to year has been gradual, but dropping from 73 percent in 2008 to 56 percent in 2010 is a huge step.”

Chew said recent sting operations – Operation Augusta Ink, Operation Fox Hunt and Operation Smoke Screen – led to the drop. The three undercover stings in the past five years resulted in more than 200 arrests and the seizure of at least 600 firearms.

Despite those successes, the battle against gun violenceis far from over, Chew said.

“We’ve let the criminals know we’re going to be actively going after them,” he said.

AGGRAVATED ASSAULTS

AREA - 2007 TOTAL - WITH GUNS

United States - 855,856 - 158,059 (18%)

Georgia - 22,569 - 6,042 (26%)

Richmond County - 185 - 133 (72%)

AREA - 2008 TOTAL - WITH GUNS

United States - 834,885 - 153,476 (18%)

Georgia - 20,206 - 5,476 (27%)

Richmond County - 238 - 174 (73%)

AREA - 2010 TOTAL - WITH GUNS

United States - 778,901 - 138,403 (18%)

Georgia - 20,287 - 5,160 (25%)

Richmond County - 273 - 153 (56%)

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Richmond County Sheriff’s Office. All statistical information was pulled from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports, 2007-2010 or from Richmond County Sheriff’s Office monthly crime reports. The 2009 Uniform Crime Report for Richmond County did not include a breakdown of the weapons with which violent crimes were committed, The 2011 report is yet to be released in its entirety.

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I am the last person to be accused of thinking in a politically correct manner. I will gladly draw you all sorts of statistics about richmond county, crime and race. But when race isn't mentioned, someone is going to bring it up as if it is a contributing factor to whether or not people use guns. PEOPLE commit crimes. PEOPLE do it with guns. Do you seriously think that just because there is a similarity in percents that this actually has any direct correlation? The reason that there still is and will always be a race problem is because of people who always bring it up and can't let it go, instead of looking at criminals as criminals and not black or white criminals. Richmond county does have a majority black population. The majority of offenders ARE black. But this doesn't mean that a simple study on Assaults with/without guns points to any race in particular. And drawing conclusions because a few numbers look similar doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

It also is not helping to have a president whose agenda is class warfare. The message should be personal responsibility, ie, education and hard work, moral choices. We will never build anything worthwhile on the wrong foundation.

You are right, pittypat...the fact that in areas of higher African American population the crime rate is also higher is a complete concidence....even though there are so very few deviations from this statistic in any city in the US. Certianly less than 2 sigma.

These statistics that were provided in this article has nothing to do with the actual crime rate. It doesn't show crime rate compared to the black population. It shows the total number of aggravated assaults (ONLY aggravated assaults, not all crime), and the percentage of those that are committed with a gun. Again, how did race become a factor in this discussion?

The term 'aggravated assault' is used differently across the US... How many cities the size of Augusta can offer Belair Estates?? A large group of upper black middle class people living together.. Richmond County is the third wealthiest county among the larger cities(1. Atlanta, 2. Savannah, 3. Augusta) Even South Augusta has some $200k neighborhoods in/around Diamond Lakes/Willis Foreman rd...

Richmond County is majority black, and the violent crime rate is lower than Durham County.. Durham County(NC) is majority white, and the violent crime rate was higher compared to Augusta/RC in the year 2010.. Which means Richmond County(including the cities of Hephzibah & Blythe) would be even more safe compared to Durham County...

This was provided by the CVB of Durham County..

Total violent crime rate per 100k
Augusta/RC 266
Durham County 612

Out of all the peer cities(southeast group) included in the study(Baton Rouge, Greensboro, Little Rock, Norfolk, Richmond, Shreveport, Winston Salem)... Only Raleigh(not a peer but it's called the Raleigh-Durham area) and Montgomery could become safer than Richmond County if they consolidated with the entire county...

Angie, the statistics that were brought up do not relate at all to the statistics in the article. See countyman's comment if you don't get it. This isn't a matter of racial demographics. Guess what - in all white areas, there is still violent crime. In all black areas, there is violent crime. In all hispanic areas, there is violent crime. In areas without black people, there's violent crime. If you can't see my point, its that a comparison of aggravated assaults (the statistics being ONLY about aggravated assaults) does not involve racial demographics.

In fact angieh, SeenitB4's comment would only serve to prove my point. If racial demographics is so closely related to the aggravated assault statistics, then why isn't Hancock county mentioned as the highest? It has a 77% black population. Yet, I don't see statistics showing that it more aggravated assaults with a gun. Crime rates (and specifically the stats in this article) do not correlate with racial demographics. I'll say it all day if I have to.

Pittypat, read my comments above. I'm not saying crime is a consequence of race, but there is a definite correlation of black areas and crime.

The Durham County statistic can be explained this way. Urban areas have more crime than suburban areas. 100,000 people living in an urban area will commit more crimes than 100,000 people living in suburban areas. Durham is mainly urban while Augusta has a very tiny true urban area of about 44,000. That's the old city.

In a consolidated city county where the suburban county makes up most of the population the crime stats should be much lower. Augusta gets a break with the county stats because of this fact.

Once again my point. The statistics brought about in this article (No of aggravated assaults versus no. of aggravated assaults with a gun) is not race related. Suggesting a direct correlation between this percentage and the percentage of blacks is ridiculous.

If a highter percent of smokers are shown over and over (with a less than 2 sigma deviation) to be the majority of lung cancer deaths, should we just throw out THAT statistic as well? This seems to be what you are doing, because you don't WANT to believe the numbers.

I think I see your point. Number of aggravated assaults vs number of aggravated assaults with a gun is NOT related to race, but number of agravated assault vs number of blacks living in a particular area (with a less than 2 sigma deviation) IS related to race.

YES!! HOLY CRAP! FINALLY WE HAVE AN UNDERSTANDING!!!! The article's statistics are the former of what you mentioned. If we want to talk about the latter, that's an entirely different discussion (and chances are, based on what you've said so far, we will agree).

The old city of Augusta was small in terms of land area.. The population of Greenville, SC is only around 60k people right now... This is why developers tend to focus on the MSA population instead of the city limits..

The fact remains Richmond County would be considered 'safe' among it's peers..

Far greater than the residual effects of slavery and southern "racism" impact today's societal ills for black citizens are the effects of deliberate government programs that have destroyed black families, removed fathers from their households, and taught them that they aren't capable of taking care of themselves or rising above their current status in life, but their destiny is to live their lives supported by government handouts paid for with money stolen from successful citizens who are "racist," "greedy," and white.

Yeah, I thought this sounded a little strange. Why would anyone smuggle guns into a country where you can just buy or steal them? Smuggled guns would cost a fortune - does anyone think that there would be a market for them? You may as well smuggle sand into Saudi Arabia. It's like the article (or at least that portion of it) was written by a foreigner who's never lived here and is getting third-hand information. Now I may be wrong, and guns are indeed shipped in under the cover of darkness, so feel free to set me right. Or perhaps legal guns destined for gun stores are intercepted and put into the wrong hands, but I don't remember hearing about it.

You just made more sense than every post on this thread....with this...

Let's Be Honest (Again)

Far greater than the residual effects of slavery and southern "racism" impact today's societal ills for black citizens are the effects of deliberate government programs that have destroyed black families, removed fathers from their households, and taught them that they aren't capable of taking care of themselves or rising above their current status in life, but their destiny is to live their lives supported by government

Some of these counties are very rural...they live off the land....farming is their way of life ....in other words they are resourceful in many ways that inner city kids only day dream about....Taliaferro county is the poorest county in Ga......but you won't see the crime you see in Richmond county..